Hi there.  Thanks for stopping by.  I’m Mary Ellen Bratu, Psy.D., founder of The Well Within Workshop. I’m glad you’re here.

I’ve been a licensed clinical psychologist for over 30 years, the first 9 years at VA Lakeside Medical Center in Chicago, where I worked with wounded veterans suffering with depression, anxiety, addiction–crises of the human spirit–individuals determined to reclaim health and wholeness to the fullest degree possible. With an adjunct faculty appointment at Northwestern Medicine, I provided psychotherapy supervision to doctoral psychology students, medical students, and medical residents. I opened my private practice in 2000, working with individual adults and couples who are facing life on life’s terms as they cope with relationship struggles, conflicts, endings, and beginnings; serious and at times life-threatening health challenges; unexpected job losses; meaningful wins; much-anticipated births and impossible deaths–the very kinds of things that life delivers sooner or later, for better and for worse, to all of us, against the backdrop of an ever-changing, at times deeply troubling world.

Prior to my doctoral training and therapy work, I earned a bachelor’s degree in art and worked for 10 years as an art director/graphic designer in advertising at two of the largest agencies in Chicago (now known as Draft FCB and DDB), producing national television and print campaigns for a variety of clients. I had the opportunity to study art in Rome, Italy, as part of my undergraduate experience, and have been a maker in one form or another for all of my life. The Well Within Workshop, located in a spacious storefront 40 miles west of Chicago, combines my commitment to health and well-being with my love for art-making and its inherent capacities for healing. Like most folks who make art, I’ve long understood that health and healing are deeply intertwined in the act of making anything with one’s hands, our original digital devices, according to Lynda Barry. As our post-industrial society moves us further and further away from opportunities to be a maker, I’m thrilled to offer a place where fellow travelers can come home to themselves through the practice of making art.

The Well Within Workshop hosts private art-making events and I’d love to host your group soon.  The workshop offers 3-hour practices for a maximum of 8 participants, with everything you need provided.  If an in-person visit isn’t possible, it is my hope that my offerings here support you in spending quality time in your own well within workshop, that rich parcel of real estate between your mind, your heart, and your hands.